Max Verstappen fulfilled Red Bull’s promise to beat Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton to pole position for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday.
Verstappen will start the race from first place on the grid after beating Hamilton by 0.388 seconds on Saturday night to the fastest time, confirming the reversal of performance between F1’s top two teams over the winter.
The battle had started during the three practice sessions in Bahrain and it was well worth the wait as the two drivers saved their very best laps until their last attempt.
Hamilton initially beat Verstappen’s first Q3 attempt, but the 23-year-old hit back to take fourth pole position of his career.
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Valtteri Bottas secured third place on the grid for Mercedes ahead of Charles Leclerc’s resurgent Ferrari, who was less than 0.1 seconds behind Bottas and will finish fourth.
Pierre Gasly took fifth place on the grid ahead of AlphaTauri, ahead of the two McLarens of Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris, who take sixth and seventh place.
Carlos Sainz was the fastest driver in the second qualifying session, but failed to perform in the top ten shootout when it mattered, leaving him in eighth place and well over half a second behind teammate Leclerc.
Fernando Alonso secured ninth place on his return to Formula 1 with Alpine ahead of Lance Stroll for Aston Martin.
Sergio Perez will start 11th on his debut for Red Bull after a gamble to get out of the second qualifying session on the medium tires failed to pay off.
F1’s qualifying rules state that drivers who make it to the top ten must start the race on the set of tires that set their fastest time in Q2, and Red Bull wanted to make sure Perez was on the more sustainable medium before the start.
However, on his first attempt, Perez went wide on Turn 4, scraping his lap time, and on his second attempt, he was 0.035 seconds behind a place in Q3.
Perez now has a free selection of tires from 11th place and will start for Antonio Giovinazzi’s Alfa Romeo in 12th place, Alpha Tauri rookie Yuki Tsunoda in 13th place and the most experienced driver on the grid, Kimi Raikkonen, in 15th place in the second. Alfa Romeo.
George Russell continued his impressive streak of qualifying performances from last year by dragging his Williams from Q1 to 15th on the grid.
The second Alpine driver, Esteban Ocon, missed a place in Q2 by less than a tenth of a second after a late spin for Nikita Mazepin in Q1 caused a yellow flag in Turn 1 and Sainz’s Ferrari caused a yellow flag in sector two with a stuttering engine.
That will keep Ocon 16th on the grid, ahead of Nicholas Latifi and Sebastian Vettel’s second Williams, who will start 18th for his first race with Aston Martin after he was also caught by the yellow flags forcing him to withdraw.
The back row will feature the two rookie Haas drivers, with Mick Schumacher beating teammate Mazepin to 19th place.